Paul Henry was
no stranger to television drama when he arrived at Crossroads, with a
number of small screen roles behind him, he probably didn't expect
his role of Benny to become one
of
the most remembered parts of the original series.

What
was your initial reaction when you first read for the part of Benny
- did you realise immediately that he would be such an enduringly
popular character?

Well it was very
weird really because I didn't read for the part I just got it! What
happened was that I was working for the Birmingham rep, across the
road, I'd been there for 8 or 9 years, and I was sharing a dressing
room with an actor called

John Rollason who
had just started writing for Crossroads and he suggested me for the
part 'cos he said "Paul would be able to play it".

He'd presented
these storylines, they'd accepted it and then he was writing the
story, so I was actually looking over his shoulder at this stuff he
was doing when we were doing the show. I finished on the Sunday night
at the Birmingham rep, arrived at ATV television on the Monday
morning to be taken off to a location where I first met Sue Hanson -
and the goat - and in that 1 day we did scenes for the 6 weeks of Crossroads.

And I went into
the wardrobe picked out some clothes, took this woolly hat that was
my brother's, I thought he'd wear something on his head and I thought
"Well, I don't want a flat cap" so I picked up this woolly
hat that he used to wear for fishing which has been the plague ever
since 'cos I play a lot of golf and everybody wears these woolly hats
and if I put one on they'll think I'm trying to, (laughs)!

Benny
had a number of very strong storylines down the years such as his
engagement to Maureen, which resulted in tragedy when she as killed
on the morning of their wedding and the time when he was falsely
accused of murdering Lisa Welch. What are your memories of those
storylines and what sort of public reaction did you get from them?

Well I think
getting married to Maureen, that's when we went to number one in the
charts and everything during that period, we were 1, 2, 4, and 5 over
that period. I always said, you see, Benny was the big feller, you
know you always got the small feller who got the sympathy, and Benny
was the big, lumbering, child-like person, you know.

I mean in real
life if people had made the nasty comments, because he was a great
one he was so easy for the press to pick up on, if he'd have been
somebody, 'cos I know lots of Bennys in this world, there are a lot
of them about and if they'd have said the things they did, people
would have said that wasn't politically correct, you know. But he had
marvellous reactions from the Maureen storyline, when he was getting
married and she died on the bike because everybody felt for that, it
was amazing. And then the murdering of Lisa Welch, I mean that was
just hysterical, everybody loved it and they stuck up for Benny and
people got really annoyed at the fact that he'd been accused.

And I mean
students, Birmingham University and up north, Bradford I think it
was, as you went through Bradford there was a bridge "Benny is
Innocent"! And the universities they were all hanging things out
the windows saying "Benny is Innocent" and that was the
tongue in cheek side, and there was also the side that really, you
know ... See it's funny because soaps, people love it but they know
it's not real but they love getting involved with it and the students
actually summed it up when there was all "Benny is
Innocent". Everywhere I went on the side of vans "Benny is
Innocent" it was fantastic really (laughs).

How
difficult was Benny to play - did it take a long time or you to
evolve his way of speaking and his personality?

People used to say
where does that accent come from? Well it never really came from
anywhere! If you were in Birmingham they thought it was Worcester,
and if you were in Worcester it was Birmingham and anywhere outside
of Birmingham they thought it was Birmingham. What I tried to do was
make it an accent that nobody could actually decide where it came from.

And I suppose at
times there was a bit of Brummy in it and that. And the actual
character, I had played some characters similar to it. The child-like
thing I'd played on the telly I'd done the "Recruiting
Officer" I played Bullock before the Benny thing and then I also
did "Mid-Summer Night's Dream" with a great cast and I
played Flute who plays "This-be" in that and he was a bit
of a child-like figure. So it was a mixture of a lot of characters
I'd played in theatre and I just pulled a few of them together, plus
people I've met over the years in different situations who were a bit slow.

How
much input did the scriptwriters give you? Were you ever able to say
no if they were going to make Benny say or do something that you
thought was wrong or out of character?

Well I think
that's where it went a bit wrong in the latter years. In the early
years as I said to you, the script-writers, John Rollason set up the
character, then people who took the character on, over the time I was
in it probably 12 years I think it was, although I never did more
that 6 months in a year, over the time I was in it, if I thought
something was wrong because I knew the character better than the new
writers so really it was a together thing and with the directors as
well. I mean I always tried to avoid making him absolutely stupid if
you know what I mean, and I didn't think you had to write material
which was silly. You had to write a situation and Benny would make it
silly. And sometimes he didn't have to say anything. My idea of Benny
was like if someone came in and said "It's raining cats and dogs
out there" all you had to do is take a look at Benny and you
could see in his eyes he was trying to work it out. He took
everything literally so you didn't have to have him saying,
"Where's them cats and dogs?" you just knew.

He did something
once where he did the chicken and he cooked it with the giblets
inside. Now everybody's saying "How stupid!", but I know so
many people who've done it!

But then in the
last year the new producer came in and I suppose they thought I was
being a bit, you know, over the top, "Who does he think he
is?" type of thing, but I used to say "Look I can't do that
because the character wouldn't do it." I mean there was one
particular director, this is when it all went wrong, who said to me:
"In the background I want you talking to those customers" I
said "Hang on, he wouldn't stand and talk to customers, he'd
avoid talking to anybody."

The only people he
wanted to talk to were people he knew. He said "No, well it
looks better for the picture", and I said "No, well that
doesn't work for me!" So there were little things like that you
see .. but of course people thought you were being a bit, you know,
because I did care about the character, you see. And because it was
always on the line of being stupid, I had to be very strong how far I
wanted it to go because all they did was stay six episodes and then
they went and directed something else - and nobody knew who they were (laughs).

Benny
had many people at Crossroads who took him under their wing but none
more so than Diane Lawton - "Miss Diane". What was it like
working so closely with Susan Hanson?

Oh, she was
fabulous. I mean, as I said she was the first person I sort of got
involved with when I first arrived and it was very much like a double
act wasn't it? And you know the "Miss Diane" which actually
was never written, I mean "Miss Diane" was something that I
put in, it was always "Diane" but of course in later times
as new writers came in again it would all be "Miss Diane, Miss
Diane" (laughs)

But "Miss
Diane", I thought was just a sign of showing respect to her.

Is
it true that you were not allowed to shave regularly while playing
Benny as the character always needed to be scruffy?

No,
no I was never told I had to, but ... a lot of the continuity really
you had to do yourself. You know it was so difficult sometimes, 'cos
I used to not shave probably on a Wednesday morning till Saturday,
because we used to film Thursday, Friday because I wanted it more or
less the same length which was easier in those days because we just
used to shoot the episodes - 1 episode, 2 episode, 3 episode, 4
episode. But of course when we started filming or shooting out of
sequence it was a bit difficult trying to keep it at the same ... and make-up
never looked the same anyway. So it was just my own thing I mean I
did it because I wanted to, because it was right for the character.

What
did you think of the controversial killing off of Miss Diane and the
storyline in which Benny bought a donkey
and named it after her? Do you think the producers made a mistake in
writing out Diane?

I think it was
wrong that they killed her off. And I think probably, I don't know
why, but in that last year it was like they wanted to get rid of
everyone eventually that was of the old Crossroads. And what people
forget is, that as far as I was concerned, I was never the old
Crossroads, because when I came into it everybody had been there for
so long and they were Crossroads, like Nolly and Ronnie Allen and
everybody and of course I was a newcomer so I went from being a
newcomer, because I think it was probably 10 or 15 years before you
became a regular (laughs) in those days because people didn't change
much and I was like a newcomer that suddenly became one of the old
stays overnight. I was suddenly one of the main characters who's been
in it all the time and of course whereas it could be a bit, you
used to get a bit scared in some ways or nervous when it was all the
old guard, suddenly it was all the new guard and they were looking at
you like you were the old guard and you've never gone through it! And
when they got rid of Sue, it probably was a toss up between me and
Sue and I think they probably thought "Well, we can get rid of
Benny eventually".

And they started
bringing in these new families - not that they weren't good - but
nobody was interested because as I said you need an established
person to initiate the new characters. And then of course he brought
in the upmarket Benny to work with me instead of Sue and it just
didn't work.

The
"upmarket Benny", would that be Charlie?

Yes. And it just
didn't work because you were burlesquing burlesque. And I think what
he (William Smethurst) wanted to do basically was get rid of the
show, everybody who was established and make his show with his own
people. Now all he had ever done was an editor on the Archers and
really what he should have done was say "No I don't want to do
Crossroads let's finish it and I'll do a new series with my new
characters."

Benny
named a donkey in Diane's memory. Was that storyline perhaps a bit
offensive to the fans of Diane?

I thought it was
funny but some people think it was an insult to Susan Hanson: I don't
think it was an insult as far as Benny's character was concerned, it
wasn't an insult but they should have had some character say to him,
"Look Benny, it's not very nice", try to convince him to do
it some other way, have a plaque made or something like that or
something for the grave. 'Cos I mean I think that's where the humour
was with Benny he didn't think there was anything wrong with things.

As
Benny you had a particular affinity with animals - you also had
Starry the goat, Moses the dog as well as several creatures that
Mavis Hooper wasn't too keen on! Did you enjoy working with all these animals?

The actual goat
was at the beginning and that was the first filming we did. And I
think you know a lad on the farm, I mean I've been to farms where
people have had the sheep that's been the kids' favourite and it's a
great big fat thing in the garden and it's their pet and they had a
name for it.

So I think it was
the same as any child, he had these animals and of course working on
the farms he spent a lot of time on his own - I'm going by what the
character to me had done in his past.

So he did love the
animals and he'd feed them and he'd probably go down and sit for
hours feeding the wild ducks. I mean I have somebody where I live now
and he goes down to where all the wild ducks are and they know the
colour of his buggy and he goes down and sits there and these wild
ducks come and sit on his lap and he feeds them, which is incredible.

And
how did you feel: did you enjoy working with the animals?

Well there's a
funny story about Starry and the first day's filming I did, that it
had been in with a dead nanny goat so it stank. And the first scene I
did was putting my arm around this goat and it absolutely stank, you
know, saying "This be my goat" sort of thing (laughs) and
that was the last time I ever saw Starry!

I think it was in
a few episodes but only at the very beginning, and that was because
we did filming one day for several episodes, it was only in probably
about 4 or 5 times if that, I can't remember now but it wasn't in a
lot but I probably referred to it a lot.

In
one well-known storyline Miss Diane taught Benny to read which I
believe led to a national literacy campaign. Can you tell us
about the impact that that storyline had?

I
think it probably made people aware that there was a lot more people
than they realised that had difficulties through one reason or
another. I mean Benny could learn to read but nobody had taken the
time. I mean don't forget we still do that now don't we?

In
a slightly more unusual storyline, Benny developed psychic powers in
the 80's when he foresaw the death of his landlady Mrs. Price and
then a bus accident which Mavis Hooper managed to avoid after Benny's
warnings. What did you think of this storyline and did you get any
public feedback from it?

I don't really
remember much about that I think it was one of those that you played
it and I tried to do it and stop it being too ridiculous. I know
there was something funny that happened, I can't quite remember what
it was in that storyline but I know it was something like I was in
trouble or something and it was ridiculous because it was in the
middle of the bit where I had the psychic powers! (Laughs) I think it
was a storyline that somebody wrote and thought "Oh this will be
fun" but it's the old story, the people playing it are the ones
that have to see it through and you know on the whole I didn't too
badly with the stories.

But it was one of
the hardest things in the world because that was almost impossible to
play if you know what I mean! But when you're in a soap for a while
I'm sure every soap actor will say they had storylines that were
absolutely ridiculous. But you can't have great storylines 52 weeks
of the year. If you get 2 or 3 in a year, and everyone gets 2 or 3
good storylines, you've got a successful soap.

I mean I always
find now that people come up to me now and say "Oh, get back
there! That EastEnders and that whatsit, it's terrible now." But
you'll find that every show has its down times. And I think what they
did with Crossroads at the end, well I think it was self-inflicted in
a way. But every soap goes down and then comes up.

Benny,
like Miss Luke, regularly disappeared from the motel for long
periods - was this to enable you to appear in other things?

At the beginning
it was because they didn't have storylines for us and later on we
were always involved in other things. I always did something on stage
and then I started doing pantomime so it was always put in that I did
my pantomime and things and I always worked on stage, at least did
one play once a year which I liked doing because it kept me going on stage.

There
has been a lot of talk about a possible return for Benny - in fact
the Crossroads Fan Club has been running a campaign to bring Benny
back to Crossroads. Are you still prepared to return and can you say
anything at the moment about the likelihood of this happening?

The man who
brought the show back didn't want the character in it, he said
"over my dead body". He must have disliked the character
intensely! (laughs) So we'll just have to see what the new production
team feel regarding the character.

People have said
to me that they'd have 2 or 3 million extra viewers if Benny came
back. But as I said to them he might get people who tune it just to
see him that remember ..I mean I just get amazed how many people
still remember the character.

I was in
Aberystwyth last week with my grand-daughter, and we parked outside
this fish and chip shop in Aberystwyth, when I came back to the car
there was this big note on the window saying "We love you Benny,
miss you, wish you were back". So people still remember the
character but it's whether they're interested ..but as I've said
before, I mean that's not saying I definitely want to go back!

So
you wouldn't definitely go back?

I don't know I
mean it's like everything in life isn't it? I'm not saying I wouldn't
and I'm not saying I would. I mean, to say I wouldn't would be the
wrong thing because I'm not sure. It would depend on how I felt, if
it was right.

Do
you still have the green woolly cap?

Oh it's probably
somewhere about, I've had hundreds over the years! I mean I used to
send them off to charities. There's one story that I got more for my
woolly hat than Edward Heath got for one of his ties! All the little
ladies used to knit me them and send them to me. But some of the ones
I used to get sent were all colours. (laughs)

One
character that Benny was very friendly with was Joe MacDonald - Mac
from the garage. Sadly Carl Andrews who played Mac passed away some
years ago. Could you tell us a little about him and what he was like
to work with?

Oh he was a great
lad, I mean Carl was on of the early coloured lads on television
wasn't he? And he had this lovely ..he had the West Indian thing you
know, laid back and never got himself in a panic (laughs).

What
would you say are your fondest memories of Crossroads?

I suppose all the
things that went with it. First of all I loved the character he was a
great character and for an actor I've said this before I believe
there's about 7 things you that have in a character and with Benny
you could use all 7 to extremes. He could cry, he could lose his
temper, he could do whatever and it's great for an actor to be able
to go to these extremes with his emotions which you could as Benny.

And so basically
it was the character I loved playing you know each storyline was a
bit of a challenge (laughs) and perhaps that's why 1 or 2 people used
to worry about me but I did care about the show and the character.
And I think that towards the end there were people trying to use it
as a stepping stone or were taking the micky because they were only
in for say a few weeks or they were going off to do something else or
they were just directing 3 or 4 episodes and they didn't really care
that much, don't get me wrong there were lots of people who did, but
there was that little influx of "were we really interested"?